Carla De Ycaza is a Ph.D. candidate in international human rights Law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, focusing on post-conflict transitional justice in Africa, and holds an M.A. in human rights studies from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science and classics from Vassar College. She is a lecturer at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. She also currently serves as Editor in Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Rights Law.

Religion and faith have always played an important role in my life, shaping my views of the world and informing my career path in human rights and peacemaking. Attending religious education as a child and young adult exposed me to the views and teachings of the Church. There, I learned the importance of loving your neighbor as yourself and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. The emphasis on loving all of God’s creatures and respecting humanity significantly shaped my view of the world. Little did I know, the solid foundation of peace and justice in Catholic social teaching would contribute so much to my future career and passion for human rights and peacemaking.
As a child, I wanted to be a writer…